That is not a problem at all. The static initializers run when the class is initialized, which is certain to be before the class is instantiated and, therefore, before any non-static code in it runs.
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Dolda2000Sep 29 '11 at 23:08

Sorry for necroing such an old issue but it seemed like this problem wasn't resolved, so I'll give a bit of input from my end.

I've had a similar problem and the compiler also kept telling me that the problem was at the start() method. However, when I commented out the thread part and just ran the code on the same thread as the UI, the compiler directed me to the real source of the problem: the code inside the thread.

After making sure the code didn't give an error, I enclosed the code with the original thread code, and it stopped giving me the NullPointerException error.